Diver one of sixteen to die using high-tech gear

[DRE]

Bob,

I'm glad to hear you took cave training from Lamar - he's a great guy and definitely knows what he's doing in terms of diving education.
My diving approach is completely based upon what Florida cave explorers have been developing for years. One of the aspects which I believe has made possible the kinda dives that certain groups in Florida have done and are doing on a regular basis (from WKPP to small two diver exploration teams - backmount and sidemount) has been their dedication to continuing education and reevaluation through accident analysis. I assume you own a copy of Sheck's Blueprint for Survival, which spearheaded all of this.
Don't worry about your flame retardant panties, I have absolutely nothing against you nor any CCR diver in particualr, my problem with what's been going on with CCR's in the last couple of years is that that same kind of accident analysis has not been a major part of the CCR community. It seems to me that the general attittude is too much to simply blame it onto user error without coming up with new ways (through perfecting the gear, diving procedures, team awareness, etc) to possibly avoid the reoccurence of such incidents.
I know that the way I conduct my dives I have every possible angle covered in terms of gas planning, lights, deco, etc. that in case the shit hits the fan my team will be able to respond swiftly and accurately to the situation. From what I've seen from certain CCR divers this attittude seems to be lacking.
If you feel differently I'd love to go over some scenarios with you and would like to get your input on how you guys handle things.

As far as my knowledge of the unit is concerned, I have checked into certain aspects of the Buddy, which made me not want to dive it because I felt I'd be putting myself at far too great a risk for something happening beyond my control (and that's the last thing I want when I'm UW). To give an example concerning the O2 sensors: the issues with the sensors are that in the humid environment found in the breathing loop of a Buddy Inspiration, condensation forms on the sensors, which can affect their ability to give accurate results. I believe, but correct me if I'm wrong that the cells on a CIS Lunar are surrounded by a hydrophobic membrane to prevent this problem. Also, O2 sensors can fail if they are exposed to certain elements, such as salt (sea water) and also can fail if they are subjected to mechanical stress (being bashed around on a boat).
The sensors need to be calibrated, you can do this on the surface, however, you can't do this at depth. Whenever you calibrate any piece of equipment, you should calibrate it at the two extremes of the range you are measuring over. With the Inspiration, you can only calibrate on the surface, therefore the maximum PO2 you will be able to measure will be 1, however the Inspiration runs at a high setpoint of 1.3pp02, but you can never calibrate the unit at that setpoint. You may think that if it shows a pp02 of 1 in pure 02 on the surface, then that's fine, but I would rather be able to make sure the sensors were going to accurately measure across the range of pp02 that I am going to breath, and more importantly, at higher levels, such as 1.6 and above to let me know that there is a problem.
So the issue, as far as I am concerned, is that how confident are you that the readings you are getting on your handset are accurate. If they are inaccurate, then the unit will mix the gas incorrectly and you will be none the wiser, until its too late. Remember an electronic CCR is constantly mixing the gas underwater (the idea of which I find very scary).